Biography
Dick Duval attended Herscher High School. In high school, Dick was a member of National Honor Society. He was a three-sport athlete in basketball, baseball, and football. He was the Captain of both the baseball team and football team. He was also President of the Letterman Club. Coach Duval graduated from Illinois State University in 1978 where he majored in Mathematics, with a minor in Physical Education. After college, he taught for three years at Herscher Grade School and coached grade school basketball and high school football. He then taught for seven years in the Kankakee School District, where he coached three sports at the high school level: football, basketball, and baseball. During this time, he was also the defensive backs coach at Olivet Nazarene University. In 1988, Coach Duval took a position at St. Joseph-Ogden High School as a math teacher and was both the head football and baseball coach. Coach Duval coached baseball at SJO for 16 years, winning more than 200 games during a time when schools played a lot fewer regular season games. At SJO, Coach Duval was the head football coach for 28 years from 1988-2015 and in that time, never had a losing season. In 1989, his second year as head football coach, he took the Spartans to his first state championship game.
Dick Duval and players talk to the media after the Spartans' 2013 state title game against Stillman Valley. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks
Before his career was over, SJO went to the playoffs 25 consecutive years, and made it to the IHSA football state championship game five times, the IHSA football semi-finals six times, and the IHSA football quarter-finals 16 times. His final record was 251 wins and 75 losses. During his career at SJO, Coach Duval earned a position as an assistant coach in the 1990 and 1998 Illinois football All-Star games. He was awarded the Chicago Bears High School Coach of the Week on October 9th, 2000. On April 5th, 2008, Coach Duval was inducted into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame where he was recognized for his ability to inspire his athletes to the highest in discipline and spirit. Sara Ulbrich Greenstein, a member of the SJO Hall of Fame class of 2014 recently cited Dick Duval as one of her five influences that helped her become a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. After retiring from teaching and coaching, Dick Duval was the main scorekeeper for the SJO boys basketball team. He also was scorekeeper and announcer for many of the basketball tournaments hosted by SJO.
Surrounded by family members Lynda Duval holds a plaque with a photo of her late husband Dick who was inducted into the St. Joseph-Ogden Hall of Fame. Standing with Lynda are her daughter Bobbi and husband Cory Busboom and son, Kiel and his wife Katie, and three grandchildren. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks
On August 20, 2021, the SJO football field was dedicated to Coach Duval and is now the Dick Duval Field. Coach Duval fought a courageous battle against pancreatic cancer, but passed away on August 26, 2021. Dick is survived by his wife, Lynda, daughters Bobbi and Toni, son Kiel, their spouses and his four grandchildren.
* Biography provided courtesy of St. Joseph-Ogden High School
Imagine a family of six people coming to your house. They knock on the door. They look tired, frail, dirty and very hungry. They are desperate. Two of the six people are under six years old. Their clothes are rags and their shoes are barely still on their feet. They tell you about their plight. They have traveled a long way. They left their country in search of a better life. They need you to help them. They need you to give them shelter, food, clothes and some cash. They need to stay with you for a while.
What if your sole income is $2,000 a month in Social Security? What if your pantry is no longer overstocked? What if you have trouble saving enough money each month to pay your utility bills and keep your car running? Your heart goes out to these people.
You would like to help them, but you don’t have the means to care for yourself and so you have to say, "I can’t. The reason I can’t is because seriously, I just don’t have the financial means to do so."
The next thing that happens is they totally ignore what you’ve just said and come into your house anyway. They scatter out to your bedrooms and begin to make themselves at home. They open your refrigerator and eat the food you have and then ask you to fix them more. Next, they need money.
"Do you have money you can please give us?" they ask. You ask them to leave but they remind you they are desperate people who need for you to help them.
Next, they insist you go to the bank and draw out your life savings and hand it over to them. They are desperate and need money. They promise they will leave. Now you are scared.
You wonder what’s next? You call The White House. You talk to Joe Biden and he lets you know that Kamela Harris is on top of this and hangs up. Of course, you don’t see any of them moving in with him. Delaware is a long way from the border. He doesn’t figure Immigrants will be much of a problem up there when he retires.
At least sixty thousand immigrants are coming to the border of Mexico to enter the United States. They are all desperate people in search of adequate housing, jobs, free education, free medical insurance and more.
Panama’s Prime Minister sounded a warning that a massive group is passing their county and many of them are coming from Haiti. Erika Mouynes is reported to have notified the White House of the most recent migration surge. She recently described how her country has seen 80,000 Haitian immigrants and evacuees crossing from South America, through Panama, headed to the United States this year.
Outlaws rob out of desperation. Drug addicts steal and kill out of desperation. Rapists assault out of deranged desperation. We don’t overlook these criminal acts in America.
They are coming here. They are moving in. They are desperate for shelter, food, free education, free Medicare, free transportation and more. Their desperation doesn’t make it right.
America is a nation of immigrants. Most of them have come legally and followed an orderly process. If our national leaders do not gain control of our border crisis a further humanitarian crisis unlike, we’ve ever seen is fast approaching.
While gathering for Thanksgiving is intended to be a joyous occasion, everyone who has hosted the feast knows it can also come with a lot of stress, and expenses.
